Haiku Poetry Day Saturday 17 April 2021

[John W Kennedy]

On Apr 13, 2021, at 12:49 PM, William_J_G Overington via Unicode <unicode at unicode.org> wrote:

> https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/haiku-poetry-day/
> 
> Are haiku poems written in any languages other than Japanese and English?

I don’t know of any other languages in which haiku /are/ written; I dare say French would serve better than English.

English hates haiku;
Syllables, like April snow,
Melt and flow away.

Of course, one might always question the meaning of “mora”,
Returning to the springtime of English and the forge of the ancient English scops,
But I fear that a seven-footed line’s too long.

> It occurs to me that the 5-7-5 structure in one language may well not have a 5-7-5 structure if translated from one language to another.

“Traduttore traditore.” (And the more exquisite, the worse.)

-- 
John W Kennedy
"...when you're trying to build a house of cards, the last thing you should do is blow hard and wave your hands like a madman."
  --  Rupert Goodwins